Vera Tolz

Sir William Mather Professor of Russian Studies, the University of Manchester, UK.

Her interests include nationalism and ethnic politics in modern and contemporary Russia; Oriental studies and national identity in imperial and early Soviet Russia; comparative imperial history. Her works include: “Russia's Own Orient”: The Politics of Identity and Oriental Studies in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Periods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011; Russia: Inventing the Nation. Arnold/Hodder Headline Group, 2001;  Russian Academicians and the Revolution. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997;  The USSR’s Emerging Multiparty System. New York: Praeger, 1990.

How to Avoid the Trap of Exceptionalism, While Accounting for Russia’s Specificities

One of the most fruitful trends of post–Cold War historiography is the rejection of the perception of uniqueness of Russia’s political and societal development. Instead, studies of the Russian imperial and Soviet past, as well as of the post-1991 situation, often adopt comparative, transimperial, and transnational perspectives. The similarities between Russia’s experiences and those of other European empires and/or modernizing societies become immediately apparent. Yet, all empires and societies did and do have their specificities. By looking at how ethnic diversity was perceived and represented by various groups of experts in late imperial Russia, I will offer some reflections on research strategies for capturing a complex interaction between transimperial and transnational, on the one hand, and Russia-specific trends, on the other. I might also offer some observations on a similar issue in relation to contemporary Russia by looking at the current television representations of the relationship between culture and behavior in ethnically diverse societies.